Relic, 4/4/12 ~Slow Progress + New Art~ Options

[Rob_Riv]

I reviewed this for my RPG Maker Review blog, and it's okay, but it needs a lot of work. There are so many issues right now.

[amerk]

I just played through a lot of this myself and while I can see potential for this game, I agree that it needs work. First, I attempted to dl the one without voice acting on rpgmakervx twice, and both times the extraction failed on the spiritual face png. So I went with the voice acting, which I was not terribly fond of.

Also, your dialogue text gets cut off way too many times. The voice acting also tends to kill out from time to time, so this coupled with the cut off text really made it hard to follow the story.

There was also one area with some weird glitch. After you first enter the cave and fight and kill the bats, when you talk to the rat again, a bunch of facesets pop up on the screen that shouldn't.

Finally, it seems quite odd that a wolf is about to attack the heroine, but willing to wait for your character to run through a cave fighting enemies first. Perhaps rather than making the wolf a boss like creature, have the wolf as a normal enemy, and position him and the girl before the cave. The wolf would be the very first enemy fought, and Peeko could use the opportunity to teach you how to fight. It would involve some re-arranging of the maps, but may work better.

[Twidge]

Hey there everyone! We now have new art for Cogg, Lorenzo, Fuega, and General Gilles!!

[Show/Hide] Cogg

[Show/Hide] Lorenzo

[Show/Hide] Fuega

[img]http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj294/lampjelly/fuega.png][img]

[Show/Hide] Gilles

[img]http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/147/e/e/general_gilles_by_erangot-d3h8r59.png][img]

This post has been edited by Twidge: Jun 12 2011, 04:36 AM

[Demonfire94]

Read over everything and it all seems interesting. I'm going to try this out now!

[Croixiane]

Wow I like you artwork for the actors and the enemies.
And there is voice acting too, I will try this as soon as possible and give you the feedback.
Good luck in finishing the project.

[Twidge]

DEMO v.1.2

VA Version v.1.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?9c4l1bjgoxxge92
No VA Version v.1.2
http://www.mediafire.com/?9421emjd88255x2

I've been working on the fixed demo!
Unfortunately, one of the main problems I cannot fix is the problems with text and voice acting in the VA version.
Aside from that, the problems that have been brought to my attention have been fixed, and should be ready to go for more enjoyment!

Stuff Fixed

[Show/Hide] .

-Slimes are no longer OP. I took away their paralyzing powers.
-Minor Spelling and Grammar Issues.
-Timer Issue in Potato Mini-Game
-Story Advancing Problems
-Face Graphic Problems
-Steal Skill Works Now
-New Battle HUD
-Fixed Scatto Face

[Jonnie19]

What type of audio are you using?? mp3/ogg/wav?

[Twidge]

ogg, it's the only way I can possibly fit all the voice clips in

[Jonnie19]

Have you tried using other formats, and seeing if the mistakes reoccur?

[Twidge]

Yeah, I've tried with mp3, and the problems were still there. WAV is out of the question, as that takes up around 1 GB for chapter 1 alone

[Adrien.]

Why are you doing voice acting to begin with? You characters dont have moving faces and honesty it sounds bad. You should create a version WITHOUT voice acting

[Rob_Riv]

Why are you doing voice acting to begin with? You characters dont have moving faces and honesty it sounds bad. You should create a version WITHOUT voice acting

There is. It clearly says in the first post. How did you download the voiced version without seeing the version that didn't have voice acting?

[Adrien.]

i didnt download either and i am dead tired so i may have glossed over it

[Twidge]

There is a version written in big letters saying Without Voice Acting.
And If you didn't download it, how do you know it sounds bad? My voice actors have put a lot of work into this, and that's sort of an insult to them. I'm trying to do something different, so that's why I'm implementing voice acting.

[X-M-O]

I believe that Adrien. meant to say, "all attempts I've heard at voice acting in a game have sounded bad and are not complemented by character mouth movement".
So basically, it is his view that the idea of voice acting is bad - not that your game in particular sounds bad.
(Of course, it is a generalisation, but he is entitled to his opinion.)

I personally think that it is great to try new ideas and implement them in your game. If it works then great, if it doesn't work then you've learned something. =]

[Twidge]

Ah well then, sorry for misunderstanding...
But, I do think the voice acting generally does work well here, I think It adds a new degree to the characters, that is something you can't normally do with games that don't have moving faces or anything

[OranGemeo]

First of all, I'm actually glad you chose to go with VAs. Not only that,I was quite surprised with the ones you have. I wasn't expecting the VA to be pretty good, was rather pleased with them. Seems to fit the characters well, so I say keep up the good work with it (You already know this, but it skips on some things. I don't think VA is actually necessary for a lot. You could perhaps shorten it to cutscenes / intro type stuff and them saying some stuff in battle - not almost every message string).

I can tell you put a lot of work into the game, characters, etc. I definatley think you have some good potential here.

I LOVE your art style. It's unique and great. (What I would love, would be if the game's graphics matched the art style more. You know, more cartoonish. Maybe even something more along the lines of Mario and Luigi games) - not saying you'd want to change it over, but it's just a thought. I don't the the VX-type characters (the really cute things) are that great in any game I've seen, I tend not to like em much.

[Show/Hide] Some Problems I found:

1 - This screen was a little odd for me. You can see that he can walk on the sign (that you can't read). It's odd to me as well that she mentions "Oh, it's dark in here." To me, it's odd that they can light the torches with none of them having fire or fire magic.
2- I honestly have no idea what to do here. The switch made the rock appear to do something near the water, This screen kinda glitched when I walked out then back in. The rock I pushed to the water is back, but you can walk on it, and I can hop on the water to hit the switch.
3- Can walk through the circled stuff. Probably shouldn't be able to. (See 4)
4- This happened in the first cave and the second. You see map pathing that just is a little strange. I feel like the character should be able to walk to the right, since there's a path there. Would be a good spot to hide something, you know? It happens in the forest a lot, too. Like the road being one tile big and on the next map, it's two tiles big. Just gotta be careful with spots that look like you should be able to go to the next map but can't.

[Show/Hide] Last Thoughts:

*I won't comment on the story, as it seems a little undeveloped and probably still in the works. I think it would be cool if in the intro, before you hear Scatto talking or something, have a nice little tidbit about the Relic and it's importance. I'm not sure why it is important really, and seems hard to base a story off trying to find something that nobody knows what it does. (People of the Sea and Earth seems slightly strange, too. Perhaps making a type of race / clan type sort of Final Fantasy style - such as Sahagin or Mermaid type people that you'll see or something, idk.)
-> Something that would be kind of cool, too, if you choose this route. Say, when Scatto and Arianne find the book from the woods. Have a cutscene where they kind of explore it's contents showing you sort of what the races look like. I'm thinking something kind of like FFTA's intro, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6gRKrqNTDw
Just skip ahead to 6:30 or so in this video. I think it was a really neat way to flip through the book and make it interesting. Seems like something definatley possible for you with your art style, and would look cool and unique.


*Your dialogue is kind of interesting, and I can tell you put thought behind what they say based on their personality.

Overall, I say keep up the good work I look forward to seeing what you can do with it.

[Twidge]

Thank you for the review!
I'm very glad you liked the voices and art! And yeah, I am considering cutting down the VA to important scenes and battle only.
I actually wasn't aware of those passability bugs, so thank you for bringing them to my attention
And, for the Relic itself, I want it to be revealed little by little what it does, where it is, and what its true purpose is.
But, that little snippet at the beginning doesn't sound like a bad idea

and, both the races died out (well... most of them) so you won't see them very often, but they do have defining physical elements to their appearance

[OranGemeo]

What do I do on the room with the switch in Django's cave? Where you pushed the rock to reach it. (On my previous thread, the second screenshot). The rock makes some kind of explosion around it but nothing appears to happen.

This post has been edited by OranGemeo: Jun 26 2011, 03:58 PM

[Twidge]

..really? Hmm... i don't know anything about an explosion... but, you're supposed to push the rock using Z and SHIFT + Z to the water below the switch, and then you jump onto the rock and pull the switch